Trends in Education and Skill Development sector

Education, Skill Development and livelihood creation continue to take the centerstage in any plan for future in India. The second term of the NDA government saw the introduction of the much-awaited National Education Policy – NEP 2020. It is likely that NEP will be the core of development for this sector going forward as well. Given the rapidity of changes, let us look at some of the trends in the sector that will have far reaching implications, that the new government should consider as it plans for various initiatives in Education and Skill Development.

Students at our higher education institutions today are going to shape the ‘Amrit kaal’ for India. This generation – Gen Z - thinks differently from yester generations that looked at education as a passport for livelihood and / or recognition. They are looking for relevance, experience and impact from Education. In the next 5 years, over 100 million such young adults will be products of our system. Some imperatives for higher education institutions, in my view, are as follows:

• Graduation is not the end-objective anymore. Are our institutions geared for a ‘credit’ era? Soon there is going to be multiple exit and entry. Also, credits from different institutions would be stackable – and there will be recognition for these stacked credits.
• Do we offer a multi-disciplinary environment? Yes, we had / are having great success with mono-disciplinary institutions like IISc, IIT, IIM etc. But the expectation is changing. In my interactions with youngsters across the country, majority of students are looking for a ‘rounded’ learning experience. Also, a lot of innovation happens when the learning cuts across disciplines.
• The parallel system of vocational and university education needs an urgent and immediate rehaul. The concept of ‘blue-collared’ and “white-collared” worker is not relevant anymore. The jobs are now based on what machines does one operates and not manual vs. desk job. As much as the vocational education stream needs deeper theoretical understanding to be flexible, the university education needs practical understanding to be relevant in the market.

Are our higher education (HE) institutions geared for such a scenario? We need to relook at our physical / digital infrastructure to align to these changes. Industry and civil society will have a bigger role in the success of HE institutions. Our regulations and regulators should be aligned to drive this agenda in our HE institutions.

Similarly, the young learners in our primary and secondary schools today are going to be the leaders when India transitions into the second century post-independence. Are we equipping them with the skill sets and mind-sets required to lead the nation – that would be very different from what it is today? Some imperatives for the primary and secondary education in my view are:

• Foundation for literacy and numeracy (FLN) is so crucial and fundamental – critical for any further learning and assimilation. Enabling policies, larger participation from society, funding for bringing in this into our mainstream education (K-12 schools) are important.
• How do we measure performance of our schooling system?  Since what gets measured, gets intitutionalised. Today, we still are stuck with input parameters to measure our investment and success - as against the ‘learning outcomes’ that should be the basis for such measurements.
• Do our teachers understand and are equipped to adapt to the changes in education system? Particularly in rural India? How do we sensitize / train these teachers? Digital connectivity could be an option. Equally relevant would be to go engage the local society – particularly women and senior children in the teaching – learning process. NEP subscribes to this.

Maybe, we should not look at just tinkering the existing system. Not even a transformation. We need to re-think the learning environment – with its regulations, institutions, teachers and other constituents, for the emerging world-order. For India, with the world’s largest young population and fastest growing large economy, this will be a game changer.

A version of this article was published in The Financial Express print version on June 10 2024.